Ronald G. Crystal MD

Ronald G. Crystal is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetic Medicine of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, where he is also the Bruce Webster Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the Belfer Gene Therapy Core Facility and Attending Physician at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

After earning a BA degree in physics from Tufts University, an MS degree in physics from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Crystal completed his medical post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and in Pulmonary Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In 1970, Dr. Crystal joined the National Institutes of Health, where he served as Chief of the Pulmonary Branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute until moving to Weill-Cornell in 1993.

During the 1970's and 80's, Dr. Crystal focused much of his research on the pathogenesis and therapy of inflammatory diseases of the lung. The work of his laboratory formed the basis of the current understanding of the pathogenesis of lung fibrosis and the hereditary form of emphysema associated with alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, a disease for which he developed the FDAapproved therapy now used to treat thousands of patients worldwide.